“Apple Doesn’t Have to Innovate Every 20 Minutes,” Says Activist

Activist and entrepreneur Dan Pallotta, of Pallotta TeamWorks was invited on CNBC last week to discuss Apple’s failing stock prices on rumors that the iPhone is no longer as popular as it used to be, and that Tim Cook hasn’t done his job properly after taking over the reins from Steve Jobs.

Defending Apple with admirably strong arguments, Mr. Pallotta tells CNBC anchors that analysts’ expectations of Apple are ridiculously high.

So much so that it is causing these analysts to be “dissatisfied” with their own lives, actually.

A Harvard Business Review contributor, Pallotta says, “Short term expectations for Apple are so high that people are hallucinating, they’re missing the big picture.”

“They literally expect Apple to come out with, like a ‘happiness machine’ or a time travel machine… Apple doesn’t have to disrupt at that level to thrive and Apple doesn’t have to innovate every 20 minutes in order to be one of the best investments on the planet.”

He points out to the iPad mini as just one of Apple’s innovations in 2012.

Pallotta sees the diminutive tablet PC as a truly disruptive product because even though competitors had already released 7-inch tablets at the time the iPad mini was unveiled, Apple’s solution seems to be the only one that works.

And that’s not all Apple did last year. The company has actually reiterated all of its top selling gear, all while dealing with an executive reform that has undoubtedly caused some disruption within Apple as well.

“People are piling on Tim Cook, saying ‘Oh, he hasn’t introduced a new disruptive product, he hasn’t innovated.’ He hasn’t innovated? This is a guy who, in a year, has taken the company through this horrible process of bereavement and refreshed every single product in the lineup,” says Pallotta.

The activist then points to the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs who also took his time to innovate.

“You know, it was four years from the time that he retook the reins at Apple until the time that he came up with the iPod. And, when he came up with the iPod, everybody says, ‘Oh, it’s too expensive’,” he tells CNBC.

“It was six years between the iPod and the iPhone and when he came up with the iPhone, everybody said, ‘Well, that’s not a disruption… it’s too expensive.’

“Then another four years, until he comes up with the iPad and then when everybody sees that, they say ‘Oh, that’s not a disruption, that’s just a bigger iPhone,’” Pallotta says.

He concludes noting that analysts are failing to pinpoint the disruption epicenter, which is “Apple takes the time to get things right.”